Rogue Afghan will not deter us, says British commander

Britain’s senior commander in Helmand vowed last night that the
killing of three British troops by a rogue Afghan soldier would
strengthen resolve, as a manhunt was launched to find the assailant.

Dismissing any suggestion that the
killings signalled a pattern of attacks against coalition forces by
their Afghan partners, Brigadier Richard Felton said: “We have made
significant progress throughout the summer, and this is not going to
knock us off track. It is just going to make us more determined to work
closer together.”

David Cameron moved swiftly to stave
off a crisis of confidence after the gunman, possibly a member of a
Taleban sleeper cell, attacked a joint British-Afghan patrol base in a
rural part of central Helmand at 2.30am yesterday.

The Prime Minister blamed a “rogue
element” in the Afghan Army and vowed that the military would not
change the way that it worked with and trained local forces. The
Taleban claimed that after the attack the soldier fled to an area that
it controlled and had surrendered to the group. A joint British-Afghan
investigation is under way to establish the facts.

“It’s absolutely essential that we
don’t let this appalling incident change our strategy or our approach,”
Mr Cameron said after speaking to President Karzai by telephone. He
said that it was the “right thing” to continue building up the Afghan
National Army (ANA).

“It’s when that happens that we will be
able to bring our troops back home.” The Prime Minister has indicated
that he wants the majority of Britain’s 10,000-strong force to leave
within five years.

In a seemingly well-planned onslaught
that lasted 15 minutes, the gunman fired a rocket-propelled grenade
inside the operations room of Patrol Base 3, a pivo-tal part of the
camp, where elements of the command team were located. He also sprayed
gunfire at a tent where British troops from 1st Battalion, The Royal
Gurkha Rifles Battle Group were sleeping. A hand grenade is also
thought to have been used.

Scores of Afghan soldiers, who were
stationed in an adjacent section on the base, rushed to help their
British colleagues. As well as the dead, four British servicemen were
wounded. There were apparently no witnesses to the attack, and its
perpetrator — or perpetrators — disappeared into the night. The names
of the dead are due to be released today.

By morning, there was a sense of
disbelief at the base, a collection of tents and wooden structures,
fortified by rock-filled barriers, built last year close to the village
of Raheem Kalay, in a rural stretch of Nahr-e Saraj district. Brigadier
Felton paid a visit, accompanied by the senior Afghan army officer and
police official in Helmand.

“This is an aberration,” he told The
Times. “Just seeing the shock and the embarrassment in the Afghan
chain of command proves to me that this is a one-off.

“If this had insurgent motivation, then it
is the insurgents trying to drive a wedge between us and our Afghan
partners, because we are having a pretty significant success working
together.”

The commander, who controls a smaller
battle space than his predecessors after a surge of 20,000 American
Marines across Helmand, said that working alongside the Afghan Army and
police “is my tactical centre of gravity”.

In a sign of progress, a British-run
police training centre in Helmand is expected to see the first class of
non-commissioned police officers in the province graduate today as well
as the 1,000th policeman.

The Afghan police have always had a worse
reputation for corruption and infiltration than the army, making
yesterday’s strike all the more alarming.

British officials said that the attack was
the work of a lone renegade, believed to be a sergeant, but a senior
Afghan commander in Helmand said that he thought the gunman was a
Taleban infiltrator who became a soldier with a false identity. “I
think he was appointed by the Taleban and he came to ANA with a
different name.

“We have started investigation on this
attack,” said General Sayed Molok Paktiawal, the 215 Corps Commander.

In Kabul, Lieutenant-General Nick Parker,
the top British commander in the country, described the attack as “a
really serious breach of trust”.

The shooting raised further questions
about the integrity and capability of local forces. Britain and the US
see a functioning police and army as the key benchmark for allowing
coalition forces to leave.

Mr Cameron will discuss progress on
training Afghan forces with President Obama next week when he visits
the White House for the first time as Prime Minister.